Retsuko is a Scorpio, Blood Type A, 25 years old. And since she graduated she’s worked in the accounting department of a Tokyo corporation, having to put up with an overbearing boss, his obsequious toady, an overly condescending supervisor, gossipy-co-workers, and a huge work load. Her only outlets for frustration are her friends Fenneko and Haida, and her love of Karaoke. Most nights,she does to a Karaoke parlour alone, books a room, and belts out her frustrations to a death metal backing track.

Oh, and did I mention that Retsuko is a Red Panda? And this is a Sanrio production? This cute Panda scraming death metal tracks about her shitty boss is in canon with Hello Kitty?

It’s one of those things where you kinda can’t believe that this exists. Japanese comedies about corporate life are usually more anodyne than this, in which Retsuko gets drunk, sleeps in, moans about her boss (a literal chauvinist pig, who’s name is a pun on the Japanese term for), plots to leave her job when she can land a husband, and swears when she’s angry. Plus, the metal songs are like full on \m/ metal \m/, very unlike the more mainstream hard rock and metal Japanese bands that have crossed over to anime soundtracks and/or western popularity.

While there is a lot of cynicism in there, it’s also quite heartfelt, and the Netflix show does get more conventionally Japanese anime comedy towards the end. It’s highly enjoyable all the way through and at 10 episodes, each no more than 15 minutes it’s a quick watch. Apparently there are 100 more 1-minute shorts out there, and they used to be on crunchyroll but have been removed. Boo.

There’s nothing more fascinating that seeing nerds play the ‘I fucked your Mom’ game. Guys will just say I fucked your Mom and move on, but nerds will make it an endless games of oneupmanship that lasts for hours. It’s always brilliant.